All backscatter “pornoscanners” to be removed from US airports

Rapiscan's machines are out, but its millimeter-wave competitors are staying.

Bloomberg is reporting that the TSA will be removing all of the remaining backscatter X-ray machines from US airports. The removal isn't because of health concerns—instead, the machines' manufacturer, Rapiscan Systems, failed to meet a US Congress-imposed deadline for altering the machines' software to produce "generic passenger images," according to the report.

TSA assistant administer for acquisitions Karen Shelton Waters, speaking on behalf of the agency, noted that Rapiscan Systems would absorb the cost for the scanners' removal, and that the removal is unrelated to Rapiscan's alleged falsification of the machines' abilities to protect passengers' privacy. Nor does the removal appear to be related to ongoing questions about the safety of the backscatter X-ray technology.

The CEO of OSI systems, Rapiscan's parent company, says that rather than pitching the expensive machines into the garbage bin, the TSA will be relocating them to other government agencies. In total, there are 174 Rapiscan backscatter X-ray machines that will be pulled from airports and relocated, on top of the 76 that were removed last year.

It's not the end of naked pictures at airports, though. Three other companies, including L-3 Communications, sell millimeter-wave radio-based scanners to the TSA. Bloomberg is reporting that the TSA is purchasing additional millimeter-wave scanners to help make up for the loss of Rapiscan's backscatter machines. The TSA's assistant administrator for security capabilities, John Sanders, is quick to echo Waters' words on why the backscatter scanners are being removed: "We are not pulling them out because they haven't been effective, and we are not pulling them out for safety reasons. We're pulling them out because there's a congressional mandate."

Lee Hutchinson / Lee is the Senior Reviews Editor at Ars and is responsible for the product news and reviews section. He also knows stuff about enterprise storage, security, and manned space flight. Lee is based in Houston, TX.